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Dead shark hung from rafters at Ponte Vedra High School in DISGUSTING student prank

As the Florida school's mascot was a shark, students think this was a prank by the seniors

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA: Reportedly, five students hung a shark above a staircase as a prank at the Ponte Vedra High School in Florida. Other students of the school walked into the school and were greeted by the disgusting sight and smell on Thursday morning, May 5.

St. John's County Sheriff's Office was provided a surveillance video from the school. The footage showed the shark being hung from the rafters by the pranksters. Officials said the video will not be released as of now, since the investigation is still an on-going one. However, the authorities said that five students have been identified by investigators. 

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Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is also investigating this horrifying incident. The shark was cut down and removed from the staircase later during the day on Thursday. As reported by WJXT, the shark is the mascot of the high school and other students at the school think this was a prank by the seniors. 

A student, Julian Chandlee told the source, "It’s kind of gruesome. I’ll be honest. That’s a pretty big shark too. It’s in the main courtyard. There are some steps that go up to the main hall, and that’s right over the steps, so it’s in a pretty major spot." Another student, Cooper Gottfried said he just could not believe this. He said, "I was going to first period, and there was this massive shark hanging from the ceiling, and it smelled really bad. I was really shocked. I just didn’t expect to see that in the morning."

When the visuals were shown to Jim Gelsleichter, Ph.D., associate professor of biology and director of the Coastal and Marine Biology Flagship Program at the University of North Florida, he said, "My gosh, the first reaction was, ‘How’d you get that up there? Those sharks are very heavy." He is not sure due to the position, but he thinks it could be a sandbar shark.

Reportedly, there is a ban on recreational and commercial harvest of sandbar sharks in Florida state waters. The five identified students are accused of having hoisted the shark at the school on Davis Park Road. Reaction tweets flooded Twitter after the viral images of the shark prank spread online. One user said, "I'm more impressed that they caught the shark than with what occurred after"

Another sarcastically complimented the group of five by saying, "That is an impressive Senior prank. The prep work and planning that went into this. I mean who has a shark on standby? Class of 2022 has set the bar high."